The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-15
TRAPPED At LAST.
AFTER TEN YEARS TWO MURDER
ERS ARE TRACKED.

His Father Slew Bank Treasurer
Barron-"My SOM Good Godp
Rora the Netc York Herald.
NEEDHAM MASS Oct. 12.-After tel
years of waiting the secret of a great muir
der mystery has come to light, and tonight
two gray haired men are behind the bars il
station No. because the conscience of d
young man away up in Augusta, Me.
goaded him into a confession Of his OWL
fathers guilt. 1t is a dramatic and start
ling story, full of the old moral that nmNder
will out
1t was about ten years ago that the Dexter
Bank, of Maine, was plundered and Treas
urerJ. W. Barron was found in the treasure
vault gagged, bound and dying. His head
was covered with CHASTITY wounds and his
garments were saturated with blood. Mr..
Barron died before he could tell the story of
the crime. The whole country was i'll a roar
of excitement instantly. Bank men shIv-
cred at the thought that any one of them
might be the next victim.
But in Dexter there were some deep
minded persons whose wagging tongues
spread broadcast a suspicion that the faith
full treasurer had committed suicide in order
to cover up financial irregularities. Soon
the whole little community was III u
wrange over the mystery. Those who
knew Mr.. Barron declared that frightful
murder had been perpetrated. Those who
did not know him shook their heads and
shrugged their shoulders. The detectives
agreed that it was a murder In time the
excitement died out, the town folks ceased
to quarrel over the case. and the Barron
murder was almost forgotten. But so deep
rooted was the suspicion against the dead
man that his widow and children were
treated coldly by many.
HIS CONSCIENCE COULD NOT HOLD 1T.
But the wheels of justice were moving all
these years. A young man in Augusta be-
gan to talk. He strug led to keep his lips
closed, but conscience was too much for
him As the secrets OF great crimes burst
from their hiding places i'll the hearts of great
cities, so the story of this cruel assasSina-
ton found utterance in Augusta. The
young man was uneasy in his bed at night.
His secret haunted him in the day time. 1t
dogged his steps and sat on the table when
he ate. At last he communicated with the
officers of the law, and to day the rope is
made that will strangle the Dexter muir
dereTs out of existence.
THE PRISONERS.
These two old men have for the past ten
years been leading rather checkered career
which now has come to a rather startling
climax The detectives took them to Boston
from Needham at Z O'Clock tonight, and to-
morrow morning they start without requi-
sition for Dexter, the scene of their alleged
crime, to meet the widow of the murdered
man and Charles Francis Stain, who accuses
his father of murder Oliver C. Smith,
alias Oliver Cromwell is old and hoary
headed with jutting, shaggy eyebrows,
knotty iron gray hair and a coarse, heavy
Il -vNhx .,..1lx
tally, and the detectives believe that before
morning he will wilt and confess what he
knows about Tia atfa,". David L. Stain,
his fellow p, Isoner, Oh the contrary is
sturdy and determined looking, and evil
IDENTIFY knows how TO keep his mouth shut.
Precious little the officers have succeeded in
getting out of him. The correspondent has
followed every move made by the detectives
since they came into this State, aud is now
able TO give the readers an authentic ac-
count of the story of the movements of the
detectives from tue very outset.
On FEB. -, 1873, the Dexter Savings
Bank was robbed and the body of Treasurer
b lrron found bound and gagged in the
vault Charles Francis Stain, of Augusta
Me-, now man of about 80 years, comes
forward and confesses that his father and
Oliver Cromwell murdered Barron, and
that he heard them talk the whole matter
over.
THE ASSASSINS ENTER THE BANK
"While waited with the team. at Bing-
ham, and next day at Scion, he says,
Cromwell and father went into Dexter
and made reconnaissance of the bank
Andrews, Thompson and keeiy had made
impressions OF all the outside and inside
doors Of the building, which contained both
the national and savings banks, several
private offices and Masonic halls in the
H.. 4
was almost entirely deserted, and father
and the rest of the gang, by means of their
skeleton keys, entered the building
and made q tour of inspection. During the
forenoon Billy Scott entered the building
by means of a skeleton key ard took no
sition in the Masonic Hall IN the top of the
building, where he could watch those who
came'in and out of tie building. While
Scott was on watch in the Masonic Hall
father and Cromwell were in an office
which Andrews had taken right opposite
the bank. He pretended to be an agent for
a Connecticut firm Scott remained on
watch all day in the Masonic Hail, and
father, Cromwell and Andrews kept close in
the latter's office across the way. They
saw man 60 into the building. He was
an insurance agent who had an Office there
In a short time this insurance man came
out again and, as they supposed, everything
was clear. In some way, however. Treas
urer Barron had entered the building dur
ing the day unobserved.
After the insurance agent left his office,
father and Cromwell came down from An
drews' bogus Office across the street, let
themselves into the bank building by their
false keys and locked the door after them
They proceeded up stairs Father produced
a key, opened a door which led into the
bank, and when they had entered locked
the door again. This was the outer room
of the bank. ana father walked through it
to the door that enters the vault room.
A HORRIBLE SCENE.
He put his hand TO the knob, opened the
door and suddenly stood face to face with
Treasurer Barron, who, at the same
moment. had his hand on the knob on the
other side, on his way back from the coal
closet, carrying nod of coal in one hand
and a fire shovel in the other Instantly
and without word father pulled slung-
shot from his pocket and struck Mr.. Barron
on the right side of the face. Barron stag
gered, and III another moment father struck
him another blow with the slungshot on the
top of the head and Barron fell to the floor.
He was not, however, unconscious, and
tried to rise, when father leaped forward
and struck him third blow, again on the
head. CroE well then jumped forward,
grasped him by the throat,
slung moose around his neck
and pulled it tight, while father
forced q gag into the PROSTATE mans mouth,
and knOtted il at the hack of his head Tbax-